MEN IN BLACK, TOO

A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Production of
the Opening and Closing Sessions of the
Event Solutions Expo 2003

E. Through the Eyes of the Production Team and Entertainers

6. - Mirage Water Works

Scott Ritt of Mirage Waterworks tells his own story:

We proposed a 30’ long WaterScrim system during the design phase and this is what we ended up with in the end. The position and location of the screen changed a bit due to the rear projection requirement.

We ended up with a little less projection throw distance than we had hoped for, which is why the imagery projected onto the water screen didn’t fill the whole screen display surface. This is a reality in many productions as the area available behind the screen for projection distance is often limited by either the venue dimensions or the set design.
I thought it still looked pretty good.

We usually try to locate the projection equipment on or near the ground to avoid having the bright source hit the audience in the eyes. However, the set design didn’t allow for this and the sacrifice in set design to make this concession would have been too great. It’s not a big deal. It’s just that if it can be avoided, we try and accommodate it as the source in the eyes can be a little bit annoying.

First off, my hat goes off to Anthony Bolotta, Kevin Bilida and the rest of the production crew for doing something that I thought couldn’t be done and that is putting together a show of this nature using conference calls alone.

Granted I have never been on a conference call with 12 to 15 people at once and thought the idea was crazy, but Anthony managed to conduct these numerous conference calls in a very productive way.

When we all showed up with our different elements, it all meshed and fell into place pretty much without a hitch, (save the usual gremlins that pop up). Robert Bottoms and John Baragona deserve much credit as well. Things changed radically on a day-to-day basis and they stayed ahead of it.

There are only a few recommendations we have for getting the most out of our water screens

The load in and operation of the 30-foot-wide water system went fairly smoothly with the exception of the ADS (Anti Drip System) performance. The ADS system is used to keep the system from dripping once it is turned off.

When the water pumps are turned off, there still remains a small amount of water in the nozzle plenum that must be either allowed to drizzle out or must be held back in the plenum.

We patented a system that used vacuum to retain this residual water. If the truss (that contains the nozzle) is not level then the residual water will slowly run to the low end of the nozzle and overcome the vacuum retention system and will drip out.

Typically, we just bump the low end of the truss up until it is level, however, on this gig, the nozzle truss also contained the two video projectors that were used to illuminate the SL and SR (Stage Left and Stage Right) set pieces.

The idea of illuminating the blank set with details and designs was a brilliant idea as it offers a multitude of looks and themes without changing out sets. The hitch with the ADS and these set projectors was that the alignment and adjustment of the set projectors is a painstaking and critical process.

The video guys did an amazing job aligning the systems and, unfortunately, we didn’t realize the truss was out of level until they had already put in many hours of tedious adjustments. For us to level the truss would have caused them to start over.

It was entirely my fault for not realizing this small detail. We ended up with the drips after about 10 minutes of off time and knew that we could remedy it by adding a stronger vacuum to the system and that is what we did.

I’m really looking forward to projecting the CHOPS technology onto the WaterScrim as I think the combo would be a real crowd pleaser and wish we had the time to integrate it into this show, but, there is always next year's show.

Thanks to all the crew involved, it really was a pleasure working with such a fine group of professionals and we had fun doing it.

Scott Ritt
MIRAGE WATER WORKS
520 S. Claudina Ave. Unit P
Anaheim, CA 92805
714-808-0058
www. miragewaterworks.com